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Oral history interview with Maris Arnold, 2002

Creator: Arnold, Maris
Project: Sheila Michaels civil rights organization oral history collection
(see all project interviews)
Phys. Desc. :Transcript: 105 pages Sound recording: 3 sound cassettes
Location: Columbia Center for Oral History
Full CLIO record >>

Biographical Note

Maris Arnold, born Edith Snyder, grew up in a working class Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. She studied philosophy at Brooklyn College and later gained an M.A. in Organizational Psychology. In 1959, Arnold began working with nonviolent social activist A.J. (Abraham Johannes) Muste at the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an interfaith organization committed to ending violence and war. Arnold became a committed pacifist and joined Muste, the Committee for Nonviolent Action, and other activists on the Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace in 1963. Arnold later moved to Berkeley, California, where she embraced the hippie counterculture and the feminist movement. She continued her social justice work through public service and the organization Books Not Bars

Scope and Contents

Arnold discusses her family and her upbringing in a working class neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. She describes the importance of books in her early life; how her childhood contributed to her social awareness; the dominant personality of her mother; her mother's role in the workforces; and her parents' struggle to achieve the American dream. Arnold talks about her first jobs, her hatred for secretarial work, and her work for social activist A.J. (Abraham Johannes) Muste at the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). She discusses the development of her political consciousness, how historical events influence personal lives, and race relations in America. She describes her decision to join the Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace and her encounters with racism, anti-Semitism, and civil disobedience along the route. She discusses her imprisonment in Macon and Albany, Georgia, including her jail cell fast and watching reports of President Kennedy's assassination while imprisoned. Arnold names those she encountered through her activism, including: James Bevel, Diana Nash, John Lewis, Julian Bond, Wazir (Willie B.) Peacock, Martin Luther King Jr., and civil rights lawyer Chevene Bowers (C.B.) King. She talks about her first husband Carl Arnold and the nature of interracial relationships. Others topics of discussion include: the suppression of female sexuality, the feminist movement, hippie counterculture, and how activist groups can nurture community and encourage conversation

Subjects

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